1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system for handling garbage or waste and more specifically relates to a method and an installation for removing and transferring waste or garbage from serving trays which on conveyor belts are carried past different stations for removing dirty dishes, knives, forks and spoons, removing waste or garbage and washing the trays themselves.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Serving trays or trays on which complete meals are served are presently used to an increasing extent either for serving a complete meal, such as on aeroplanes and in hospitals, or at cafeteria-type restaurants, such as canteens for personnel, lunch rooms, dining-halls etc. In smaller restaurants the trays are usually collected and cleared altogether manually, which brings about relatively high labour costs. Moreover this work is dirty and unhygienic. In order to overcome these problems in larger restaurants and the like systems have been developed for automatizing this handling of the trays, and such systems have for instance been used in catering at airports, where the larger air-lines have their own establishments with kitchens for preparing trays with complete meals and for taking care of the trays after the flights. Thus, the finished trays are transported in special carts or carriages from the aeroplanes and into the kitchen establishment where the trays are placed on conveyor belts on which they are brought past different stations for removing knives, forks and spoons, removing china and for cleaning the trays. In these known establishments so called "flume systems" are used for removing garbage or waste from the trays and for washing the same after they have been cleared from knives, spoons, forks and china. These "flume systems" essentially comprise a water bath into which the trays are introduced by means of the conveyor belt, whereby the garbage or waste is suspended in the water and subsequently is removed from the water bath by means of a separate transport device carrying the waste or garbage to separate containers. The most essential disadvantages of such "flume systems" is on one hand the large volume of water required for operating the system and, on the other hand the fact that the waste or garbage tends to stop up or clog pumps, conveyors and other parts of the system, which in turn means that substantial work has to be put into cleaning the parts of the system when the operation of the system is disturbed. Further disadvantages are that the waste or garbage becomes mixed with water which makes the further transport of the waste more difficult and also more expensive, and that the system is unhygienic due to the unpleasant smell arising in connection with the dewatering of the waste and which may be very annoying to the operators.